“He’s a very pretty horse, but he’s got a tremendous amount of muscle and a beautiful topline,” added the Wayne, Oklahoma, trainer. “He’s a tremendous horse – really a specimen to look at.”

Hans was bred by Joseph “Joe” Fischer of Belleville, Kansas, but Joe said the stallion’s success is shared by the entire family.

“My father and I (bred the horse),” Joe explained. “My name’s on it, but I’ll give him at least half of the credit.”

“Thank you, Joe,” his father, John, laughed.

“He’s quite the horse, but in Luke’s hands, he’s even that much better – (Luke) can take him to the next level,” Joe added.

John and his wife, Joyce, are AQHA 30-year breeders and they’re also from Belleville. Their faith in Luke started about 25 years ago, when Luke was working for Jim Snow. The Fischers sent a mare to Jim’s to be bred and Luke offered to halter break the foal by her side. Next thing you know, Luke led the filly to a world championship with the International Buckskin Horse Association – they attest that it was Luke’s first big win, and they’ve all got the pictures to prove it.

Although Hans will be retired to the breeding shed, at least for now, Luke is already anticipating Hans’ offspring.

“What he can add to our business will be tremendous. He’ll be a breeding horse, like his daddy.” And Luke would know – he showed Kids Classic Style.

The Fischers were certainly fans of Hans’ dam, Impressive Skipnsong – they bred the daughter of Impressin themselves – but they found a few traits in her that they wanted to improve upon. And that’s how they chose two-time world champion Kids Classic Style.

“The dam was a very pretty mare, very fine,” John recalled. “(She) didn’t quite have enough muscle for a good halter horse, so we decided to look for a stallion that is pretty heavy.

“The features (Hans) has are the dam’s features, mostly. The heaviness, or the muscles … he inherited it from the sire.”

To win with a homebred is sweet; to share the win with the entire family is even better.

“Everybody’s on the board with us. They’re all very excited,” John said. “Matter of fact, right now, the ones that couldn’t make it here are watching the competition on the Internet.

“We kind of share into the success and the failure sometimes, too; except the money part,” John joked, which warranted a good laugh from Joe. “They don’t help me out any.”

But John added, “Joseph is the one who is kind of stuck with the bigger bill than I am,” to which Joe responded with an even heartier laugh.

That’s OK – if Joe’s writing the checks, at least he’s the one hoarding the trophies. Or is he?

“He’s supposed to build a trophy case at his office, and he’s supposed to put (the new trophy) in the office,” John explained; Joe and his two brothers are all dentists and their sister is a registered nurse. However, the trophy case has been under construction for the past eight months.

“I’m just making room for one or two more; I wanted to kind of wait until the last minute,” Joe explained. Of the other trophies, he points his finger as to where they might be: “I think they’re hiding at his house.”

“Yeah, they are,” John said, smiling mischievously. “Actually, I sleep with them – some of them are in my bedroom.”

Well, we’ll just call it for safe keeping.

AQHA Professional Horseman Luke Castle shows Joseph and John Fischer's JF Skip N Style to the aged stallions world championship at the 2012 AQHA World Show. (Journal photo)